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“Huh? What’s wrong with his vibe?” Now it was Poppy’s turn to frown.
Maya shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s a vibe, you can’t usually put that into words.”
His Not Like Jake vibe was enough for me. “I think he looks great. I’m gonna swipe right, yeah?”
“Do it!”
Poppy’s enthusiasm gave me the push I needed, but even still, my fingers were shaking when I swiped right. Had I really just done this? “Holy shit, he’s typing already.”
“Wow, he’s super into you! Gotta love that.”
Travis:Hey girl
“What do I type back?”
“Hello is generally standard practice,” Maya remarked wryly.
I did that, and we started chatting, then within five minutes he was asking to meet up. I looked around the table. “Um, so I was thinking there’d be a getting to know you phase? Isn’t that how these things normally work?” This felt like a lot more than dipping my toe in and dammit, I wasn’t ready.
Hannah rubbed my arm. “It’s totally up to you, hun. You don’t owe this guy anything. But, you know…”
Yeah, I did know. Jake had walked out of here with a hot chick on his arm. Who he was probably fucking right now. Not even thinking of me for one second. I’d like to say ‘fuck him’, but since I couldn’tactuallyfuck him, I needed to move on. I looked at Travis’ profile pic again. Could I actually have sex with this guy? Probably not. But he was just asking me to meet for dinner. What did I have to lose? Clinging to the hurtful memory of Jake leaving the bar, picturing what he might be doing with that girl right now, I rubbed my lips together and typed back. He named a place and time, I agreed and dropped my phone hastily into my bag. “Done.”
“Yay!” Poppy clapped.
I didn’t quite share her enthusiasm, but I wasn’t entirely pessimistic either. It was a start, at least.
CHAPTER17
Emma
Relax. You have nothing to be nervous about.
Yeah, right. Telling myself that for the twentieth time wasn’t making the slightest difference. I was stupidly nervous. I’d almost cancelled the whole thing, because yeah, I was that chickenshit. But we’d exchanged a few texts since that night at Lacey’s, and Travis seemed polite and attentive. His last message had mentioned that he was really looking forward to dinner and getting to know me better. It seemed sweet, so I’d squashed down the impulse to cancel. The whole point of this exercise was to get laid, dammit. I’d even gone so far as to book an overnight nurse for my dad in an attempt to prove to myself how committed I was to the plan. The plan to exorcise my body’s demons that were Jake. The memory of that dark-haired woman, draped all over him, shimmered in my mind’s eye. Yeah. Definitely time to move on.
Now I was grappling with the fact that the restaurant he’d suggested we eat at was just a few blocks away from the one belonging to Ally’s family, and for some reason, that made me feel guilty. So stupid. I was allowed to date. It wasn’t like Ally would stop me. Or tell Jake. And even if she did tell him, why couldn’t she, anyway? I didn’t care if he knew. Why would I?Oh, for fuck’s sake, just shut up and go inside already.
I drew in a deep, steadying breath and pushed the door open. Very nice. Polished wooden floors, soft pendant lighting, white linen tablecloths. Classy without being intimidating. Looking around, I tried to spot him. There. Sitting by himself at a booth tucked away in the far corner next to the window, his back to the door. The hair looked right. While I waited for the server to come over, I took my coat off, glancing at myself in a big, gilt-edged mirror on the side wall. I’d agonized over what to wear and in the end, had sent a pic of my outfit to Maya for approval. All in all, I was happy with it. I’d straightened my hair, which I hardly ever bothered to do. A bit of makeup, but not too much, because that wasn’t really my thing either. My lipstick looked nice, though, and my pale pink lacy dress was dressy without overdoing it.
The server arrived and led me over to the booth.
“Hi.” He stood up, flashing me a perfect, toothy, white smile. Blindingly white, actually.
“Hello. It’s great to meet you in person.” I smiled back, turning my face so his incoming kiss landed on my cheek. I wasnotdown for a kiss on the lips within three seconds of meeting each other.
“Likewise. You look lovely.”
“Thank you.”
He gestured to the seat opposite him and I sat down, forcing myself not to grip my hands together with tension. So far, Travis hadn’t made the best first impression. Firstly, he definitely wasn’t six feet tall. I was five foot five, and this guy would be lucky to hit five foot ten. It wasn’t that I gave two fucks about his height, but it was a stupid thing to lie about.
On top of that, had he used a filter on his profile pic? Something that gave his face a more sculpted look? Again, I didn’t really care, but yeah, it was a dumb move, because it wasn’t like I wouldn’t notice. And then there was his aftershave. It was very strong and really soapy. I didn’t like it at all. But hey, maybe I was just being petty. Dinner and good conversation, that’s what I was here for. Then maybe a good fuck, if he rinsed off the bulk of the aftershave.
The server had moved away to seat some new arrivals and before she’d finished doing that, Travis turned and clicked his fingers at her. Clicked. His. Fingers. At. Her. What thefuck? She smiled politely and nodded, made sure the guests were comfortable, then came over to us.
Tucking her short blond hair behind her ear, her blue eyes were expressionless when she looked at Travis. “What can I get for you?”
“We’ll have a bottle of the Cloudfall Pinot Noir.”
